It's never wise to compare apples to oranges. Or trades involving five-time All-NBA, franchise-altering superstars to trades involving, well, players of a much lesser pedigree.
That's what Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts did in his and general manager Nico Harrison's private media "roundtable" on Tuesday.
Watch NBC Bay Area News free wherever you are
WATCH HEREWelts, who previously served as Warriors president from 2011-2021, discussed Dallas' stunning trade involving guard Luka Dončić earlier this season and was asked how the organization plans to rebuild trust with its fans after the shocking move angered a large portion of them. To put it lightly.
In doing so, Welts compared Dallas' move to Golden State shipping guard Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson midway through the 2011-12 NBA season.
"At Golden State. When I got there, we had one marketable player that our fans love. His name was Monta Ellis. We traded Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for an injured Andrew Bogut, who wasn’t going to play that season," Welts told reporters. "Ten days later, our new owner, Joe Lacob, was booed off the court trying to retire Chris Mullin’s uniform to bring him back into the fold of the Warriors. Booed off the court.
"The ball came out of Monta Ellis’s hands, was put in this young guard named Steph Curry. Four championships later, that worked out pretty well.
"So, I would just say that this story is unfinished. We understand the pain, we’re listening. We hear every day the pain that people are feeling. But I think you have to judge us, from this day forward on, whether or not we’re going to conduct ourselves as an organization and as a basketball team in a way that that fans can embrace."
Golden State Warriors
Mavericks, Warriors and NBA fans alike, understandably, were bewildered by Welts' comparison given Dončić widely has been regarded as one of the top-five players, at least, in the NBA since his debut in 2018 and was believed to be one of the very rare "untouchable" superstars before he stunningly was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 2, while Ellis, albeit a star player for the Warriors from 2005-2012, simply does not compare to a player like Dončić.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts compared the Mavericks trading Luka to the Warriors trading Monta Ellis 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Jeffrey Cooperstein (@Jeff_Coop27) April 15, 2025
They are the most clueless out of touch front office in the history of sports
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news with the Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
SIGN UP Tell me they didn't compare Luka to Golden State trading away Monta Ellis. At least tell me that part is made up.
— Bob Sturm (@SportsSturm) April 15, 2025
rick welts comparing the luka doncic trade to when the warriors traded monta ellis is insane.
— Jasmyn Wimbish (@JasmynWimbish) April 15, 2025
and then go follow it up to say “the warriors had steph curry and he made the fanbase fall in love with him.”
luka is steph, not monte in this analogy what are we talking about???
The problem with Welts' comparison, as one of the social media users above points out, is that Dončić is Curry in this scenario and Dallas does not have a potential superstar waiting in the wings like Curry was behind Ellis in 2009.
Fortunately for the Warriors, their trade was followed by four NBA championships. While it still is too soon to tell, for some, if the Mavericks' trade will pan out as they hope it will, most seem to agree that it certainly will not.
